The surface sediments, i.e. the predominant sediment type of the upper ~ 50 cm of the seabed, form the uppermost part of a sediment sequence covering the rocks of the Barents Sea. This sediment sequence varying in thickness from a few to several hundred meters and was mainly deposited during the Quaternary (the last 2.6 million years), a time period where glaciations took place repeatedly.
Mud (clay and silt) – soft bottom sediments
During the last deglaciation (15 000-10 000 years ago), meltwater rivers carried large amounts of clay and silt to the ocean. Some of this was preserved in the deeper troughs on the continental shelf. However, subsequent lowering of sea level and strong bottom currents resulted in winnowing of finer grain-sizes (clay and silt) from the bank areas, and deposition of these sediments in the deeper parts. This characterizes much of the Bjørnøyrenna, Storfjordrenna and the deeper basins in the north and east of the Barents Sea.]]>In Norway area protection is regulated through the Nature Conservation Act where four various categories might be conserved. This are national parks, protected landscape, nature reserves and natural monuments. The protected areas are intended to safeguard a representative section of habitats and landscapes for future generations and protect areas of special value for plants and animals. It is also important to protect areas for maintaining viable populations of flora and fauna.
Protected areas in Svalbard, Norwegian Arctic, were originally established under the 1925 Svalbard Act. When the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act entered into force in 2002, all national parks and nature reserves in Svalbard was protected under the new act. In all, 65 per cent of the area of the islands is protected, together with about 75 per cent of the territorial waters out to the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit. The newest national park, Indre Wijdefjorden, was established in 2005.
]]>There is approximately 20,000-30,000 Atlantic walruses; ~2,500 of which spend the summer in Svalbard. Walruses in the southern areas of the Barents Sea in Russian territories are also thought to be increasing. However, the total population size of the whole Barents Sea is unknown as Russian areas have never been surveyed.
Find detailes in the MAP Service.
]]>There are currently now data available from the Norwegian mainland, however initiative is taken to include Norwegian records in the Seabird Colony Database.
]]>In Norway, Snøhvit is a gas and condensate field with an underlying thin oil zone. The field is located in the central part of the Hammerfest basin, and is developed with subsea templates with slots for 19 production wells and one CO2 injection well. The reception facility at Melkøya outside Hammerfest receives the unprocessed well stream from Snøhvit. The Goliat field is located 50 km southeast of Snøhvit, only 70 km from the coast of Norway, and is a field in the developing phase. The field will be developed with a floating production and storage facility with subsea wells.
In Russia, Prirazlomnoye oil field is on track for oil production. The field is one of the largest among the proven oil reserves in the Russian western Arctic shelf. According to adjusted production plans by Gazprom, commercial production will start in 2011. The largest among discovered oil fields in the Pechora Sea, Dolginskoye, with proven reserves of 235 million tons of oil is located north of Prirazlomnoye. Up to 2010 Gazflot plans to drill 7 new exploration wells at Dolginskoye and get the first oil in 2015. Oil production is planned on three more licensed sites in the Pechora Sea – Medynsko-Varandeyskiy area, Kolokolmorskiy and Pomorskiy blocks. The Shtokman field is located in the central part of the Russian sector of the Barents Sea shelf, about 600 km northeast of the city of Murmansk at local sea depths of 320-340 metres. Shtokman gas and condensate field was discovered in 1988. The plan is to get the first production gas at Shtokman in 2013, and the first LNG in 2014.
There is an increasing interest for exploration in the Barents Sea. The development of Snøhvit has shifted attention towards the area once more, as have new discoveries of oil and gas resources in the Hammerfest Basin and the previously little investigated eastern part of the Barents Sea. The large discoveries in the Russian part of the Barents Sea have also contributed to the increased interest for the Norwegian part. The Barents Sea is in general little investigated, even though it is assumed that the Arctic contains a substantial part of the world's undiscovered petroleum resources.
There are currently now data available for oil and gas activities in Russian part of the Barents Sea, however initiative is taken to include Russian data as soon as possible.]]>
The BarentsPortal financed in 2009 a project with goals to do a aggregation of data from ACSYS with a updating of the sea-ice extent till 2008. Please go to the MAP Service to find the visual presentation under section Oceanography.
]]>OSPAR is implementing, a suite of five thematic strategies which one of them are a Strategy for the Joint Assessment and Monitoring Programme (JAMP), which assesses the status of the marine environment and follows up implementation of the strategies and the resulting benefits to the marine environment. This strategy are a part OSPAR's ecosystem approach. The 1992 OSPAR Convention contains a general obligation to collaborate in regular monitoring and assessment of the state of the marine environment in the maritime area. Annex VI to the Convention provides for cooperation in monitoring programmes, joint quality assurance arrangements, the development of scientific assessment tools, such as modelling, remote sensing and risk assessment strategies, and the preparation of assessments. The environmental assessment and monitoring related work is implemented by OSPAR’s Environmental Assessment and Monitoring Committee (ASMO).
As a member og OSPAR, Norway have implemented JAMP and has accomplished monitoring along the coastline from Lofoten island to the Norwegian - Russian border since 1994. The following contaminants are included in the program for bottom sediment analysis and biota: ZN, Hg, Cu, Pb, Li (normalising element for bottom sediments), PAH and POPs (organochlorine pesticides and PCBs). In blue mussel concentration of organotin (TBT) are measured.
At the Joint Norwegian - Russian Environmental Commission meeting in 2001, it was stated that the Norwegian JAMP activity should be extended into the coastal areas of mainland boarding the Barents Sea, involving harmonization activities between Norwegian and Russian monitoring institutions.
Results from this activity are presented i our MAP Service.
It should be mentioned that the Ministerial Meeting of the Commission adopted in 2003 a Strategy for the Joint Assessment and Monitoring Programme (JAMP). This provides a framework for work to prepare and produce a series of thematic assessments, leading to the next comprehensive assessment: the Quality Status Report 2010. In this way OSPAR is co-ordinating repeated measurement and assessment of the marine environment over a 10 – 20 year timeframe. Hopefully, the result from monitoring in the whole Barents Sea will be included.